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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner: Mary Sauer MSC 26/2.11.76
ArchiveNational Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateFriday 15 September 1894
Address FromThe Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToMary Sauer nee Cloete
Other VersionsRive 1987: 239-40
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. This letter has been misdated by an an unknown hand as 15 September 1895 - it should be 1894, as content shows Schreiner was pregnant and looking forward to the birth of her baby. She was resident in Kimberley from early August 1894 to November 1898.
1 Friday
2
3 Darling
4
5 I'm always thinking of you though I don't write. I wish you could have
6come up. I long very much to see you, Mary.
7
8 I wrote to ask your sister to call & she said she would some day when
9she had time.
10
11 I am very well. It's not the little tiny baby I look forward so much
12to having, but the little child when it grows older, & I can tell it
13stories & take it for walks with me. Cron is very anxious it should be
14a little girl, but except for his sake I shall be as glad if it is a
15boy as a girl. Have you a good book giving the way a woman should
16treat herself while she is pregnant &c. &c. If you have will you lend
17it me. I fancy you had one. If it's not you it's Keitje Silke ^who has it^
18
19 I dont know when I shall be able to come down to Cape Town now. Isn't
20there any chance of your coming up here later on? You don't know what
21a longing I have for just a few days with you sometimes: & you would
22love Cron. He grows nearer to me as time passes. We are much closer
23friends than when we married.
24
25 If you see Mrs Tom Graham give her my love, & tell her I shall be glad
26to see her if ever she comes to Kimberley; she must not for get to
27call.
28
29 It is just a year now since we were at Millthorpe together. It seems
30so long ago now. Do you know whether Lady Loch is coming out again
31with Sir Henry? Good night my sweet old Mary.
32
33 Yours
34 Olive
35
36 ^Do you see anything of Lady Seivewright & Miss Page?^
37
Notation
Riveis (1987) version of this letter has been misdated, omits part of the letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.